- Friday, October 7, 2016
- 1:30 PM–2:30 PM
- Science Building 010
Jay Hollman, Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center
The concept of health surpasses merely the absence of disease. Healthy people are able to overcome stresses, both physical and emotional. Living in the luxury of an affluent society with a capitalistic medical-industrial complex, we have created many new ‘diseases’ that consume medical resources: attention-deficit disorder, false positive diagnostic tests and andropause or male menopause. Disease is known to be the result aging, infection, genes, environmental pollutants and certain habits. Much is changing here for us: ‘genetic prepositions’ are modified through epigenetics; infections are not just pathogens but can also be aids to health e.g. the gut biome. Certain habits such as social connectedness, religious faith have been shown to be protective from illness. Medical therapies have become increasingly evidence based but in some cases cost prohibitive. A focus on value with elimination of ineffective and low value treatment will be needed to take advantage of precise and personalized medicine made possible with the new genetic information.
